2/16 - Dr. Norman Finkelstein at Temple University 4/7/11

Temple Students for Justice in Palestine presents the world-renowned scholar Dr. Norman Finkelstein on April 7th, 2011. Dr. Finkelstein's lecture was on the recent affairs of the conflict, such as the Gaza and Freedom Flotilla massacres and the so-called "peace-process;" Israel's sights on Lebanon and Iran; and the significance of the current Arab revolutions on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
www.templesjp.org

Bio of Dr. Finkelstein:
Dr. Finkelstein was born to a Jewish family. His mother, MarylaHusyt Finkelstein, survived the Warsaw Ghetto, the Majdanek concentration camp, and two slave labor camps. Norman's father, Zacharias Finkelstein, was a survivor of both the Warsaw Ghetto and the Auschwitz concentration camp. Finkelstein recalls his strong youthful identification with the outrage that his mother, witness to the genocidal atrocities of World War II, felt at the carnage wrought by the United States in Vietnam. Finkelstein's work has attracted a number of supporters and detractors across the political spectrum. Notable supporters include Noam Chomsky, prominent intellectual and political critic; Raul Hilberg, Holocaust historian; and AviShlaim, Israeli New Historian. According to Hilberg, Finkelstein displays "academic courage to speak the truth when no one else is out there to support him... I would say that his place in the whole history of writing history is assured, and that those who in the end are proven right triumph, and he will be among those who will have triumphed, albeit, it so seems, at great cost."

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Norman Finkelstein
• Palestine
• Israel
• Gaza
• Gaza Massacre
• Freedom Flotilla
• Mavi Marmara
• Operation Cast Lead
• Lebanon
• Iran
• Temple University

[moovershaker]

@Jack72824 Don't avoid the issue. You are well aware we were not discussing whether or not Finkelstein is able to remain calm under pressure. I just presented the facts as they relate to the points that you raised. The fact remains that Finkelstein does support the targeting of civilians, and anyone researching Finkelstein with a 'liberal and open spirit' will reach exactly the same conclusions that I did. Your outlook is at best simplistic and your argument has neither truth nor credibility.

[nevernohijab]

@Jack72824 and one more thing:

11 million (!) Germans were expelled after WWI from Hungary, Russia, Poland...

700 000 thousand Jews were expelled from Middle East and Maghreb after 48 (without any damages), people are being displaced in Darfur by the hundreds of thousands....

Do you see any of them with an explosive belt???

You, my friend, are in the best company of those who want to see the Jews gassed and you have no clue who you are siding with...

[nevernohijab]

@Jack72824 LOL

whine, whine, whine...

You know that there are two definitions for refugees. One by the UNHCR

according to this, second generation is no longer refugee.

And then according to UNRWA.

which - hocuspocus - generates 4.5 million refugees out of 700 000.

---as the song goes: there are million bucks in aid ....

[Jack72824]

@nevernohijab How could I or anyone else destroy the reputation of Dearth O' Wits? He's a plagiarist, a merciless advocate of torture, and a shameless, vicious, relentless bully. That's his reputation, and he created it all by himself.

Suchar is weak and venal, as we saw when Dearth O' Wits bullied him so publicly and so relentlessly four years ago. What "reputation" did Suchar have before that humiliation?

[Jack72824]

@nevernohijab Your assertions are nonsense, and nothing more than the repetition of Israeli government propaganda.

Your blithering about "23 vaast territories" is not only absurd, it is dishonest; you know perfectly well, as does the rest of the world, that the Palestinians ' home is PALESTINE. Unfortunately it's been illegally occupied by a brutal invader for the last 44 years.

[nevernohijab]

@Jack72824

May I remind you of a commonplace fact:

Arabs are fighting to wipe out Israel, well aware that any of the 'solutions' they suggest would cut the roots of the state. Annihilation of Israel in Arabic speeches before an arab audience is never really hidden.

And Israel has nowhere to go, except the mediterranean.

But maybe that is what you want.

In view of 23 vaaast territories, I find this obscene.

[nevernohijab]

@Jack72824

You also like to destroy reputations, don't you?

I understand why you admire Finkelstein.

[Jack72824]

@nevernohijab Someone (probably Alan Dearth 0' Wits) wrote that for Suchar, who was and is a notoriously weak and venal man.

[Jack72824]

@moovershaker "Obsessive demonization"? Anyone watching this in a liberal and open spirit would not think that; Finkelstein is meticulous, scholarly and fair-minded throughout this. Even when those angry, spluttering Israeli state supporters shout, boo and interrupt him, he remains polite and considerate.

After all, as he points out to the fury of the disrupters, people watching can judge clearly which side has truth and credibility.

[moovershaker]

@Jack72824 Well Finkelstein's obsessive demonization of not only Israel, but also of non Israeli Jewish organizations involved with fighting antisemitism, inevitably leads to a rise in antisemitism. On the the second point, yes I'm afraid he does support attacks on civilians, sometimes referring to it as 'Belligerent Retaliation'.

He doesn't hide it - so I guess you and 'everyone else' will just have to do some research.